November 14, 2012

DIY: Artsy Pouch

I've started 'test-making' things to gift for Christmas, and I started with this pouch. I find it hard to come across pretty modern fabrics that are really cheap, so I took it upon myself to just paint on my fabric of choice. Read on for the tutorial..ish @_@

What do you need:

Canvas fabric - preferably the heavy-weight kind of canvas used for painting (I have a lot of scraps from my brother making his own canvas boards)

Lining fabric

Zipper

Acrylic Paint

White fabric paint

Sponge

Tape - painter's tape works best for me

Sewing machine

Let's begin!

First, cut up your tape. I like using painter's tape, I make less mistakes (I still make mistakes, just a little lesser than normal haha). It helps to use a cutting mat with guides, as I did above. Cut up 4 equal-width tape strips. I think mine was about 1/4" each.

On your canvas fabric (cut down to your pouch size + about 1/2" all around seam allowance), stick two tape strips diagonally as shown, Make sure they are parallel to each other.

Next, tape down the remaining two strips, making sure they are parallel to each other. For a fun pattern play, I didn't mirror the angle of the tape on the other side, as you can see, the right side is slightly higher than the other.

Mix your acrylic paint and white fabric paint - your resulting color will be lighter than the base color, so beware. You can test out color combinations on scrap fabric before applying it onto your project. I used a combination of sponge and finger - lol. I find that with heavy canvas, my finger spreads the paint better. Paint the outer sides first (and don't sponge aggressively or you'll end up with tape lifting up).

Next, paint on the remaining parts. You can choose to add different colors or just one. I preferred a mustard/gray combo so I stuck to my color scheme. After it dries up, iron it on the back side and sew your pouch!

Don't dab on too much paint or you'll end up with cracking paint in the end (like mine did, but I'll fix it when my OC-ness gets to me). How do you sew a pouch? I can't possibly explain how, seeing as I'm not really a pro at sewing pouches yet. You can check out this tutorial from Noodlehead, it's my favorite. Hehe.

Not happy with imperfect edges? You can pick them out, stick tape on them and paint them again. Or better, pick out a line and make an accent like you see on the photo below:

I think this one turned out better than the first, I guess this is what I'm gonna use to gift to someone. Now to actually sew it and think of who to give it too. Hmmm.